By Patricia Rogers | Posted Saturday, June 11, 2022
INTRO
This is a milestone edition! Late, but still here. And I can not help but appreciate that timing… is going to do what it is going to do. And you know what? We should be thankful to even be on this ride called life.
Yes, Patricia the Optimist is back and it feels good. Although I know it is temporary. You can plan. You can prep. You can wish for the best. But sometimes, it is what it is. You take things day by day and roll with the punches.
Roll with the punches — this is absolutely easier said than done. But when you actually can do this when things don’t go as planned, it is life-changing.
I say, ride the wave!
MEET & SHOUT OUT TO DOC & COREY
My family always wanted me to go to a Historically Black College/University, but I did not. And I must say that is one of my regrets.
However, I am glad that my choices have led me to where I am now. And I have been blessed to have had so many amazing people in my life that have gone to HBCUs. It has been a pleasure to see the work that my friends have been doing in the community.
I caught up with Doc, a lifelong wrestling fan who hosts a wrestling panel every year for the HBCU Con, and his nephew Corey, who was on this year’s panel.
This year’s HBCU Con took place on April 29 - May 1, 2022.
What makes HBCU Con special?
Doc: It took a dope Black woman in the form of my friend and fellow Blerd (black nerd) named Chauna "CC The Geek" Lawson (who is an HBCU alumni from Bowie State University) to create a convention that mixes pop culture, comics, anime, etc. with an HBCU theme to it. You not only get the feel of expressing your fandom in whatever your interests are but you get the experience of what HBCU campus life could look like for those who could be potential prospective students interested in attending an HBCU. It could open that dialogue and network between those individuals and a variety of HBCU alumni that were a part of this very special convention. Not to mention, what pop culture convention do you know of that has a step show? Dare I say, HBCU Con was indeed "A Different World" than where you come from.
What HBCU did you attend?
Doc: I am a proud alumni of Coppin State University in Baltimore, MD (since graduating in 2001) in which I am currently 2nd Vice President of our alumni association. Plus, my fellow Coppin alumni named Wendell Smith is the Vice President of HBCU Con.
What is your favorite part of HBCU Con?
Doc: Well, other than my wrestling panel (lol), I enjoyed the outdoor Yardfest Performances where a host of great musical talents who blend their mixture of R&B/Hip Hop & Pop with a Blerd feel to it. For instance, the group Mako Girls give you those Destiny Child/TLC vibes, but they blend that with their love for nerdom and it shows in their dope costumes. Another one in which I admit of being bias to is my friend Roquois (pronounced like Iroquois but without the "i") who is a cosplayer extraordinaire and a very polished independent artist that mixes pop with nerdom but also with fashion in which she herself has done many runways throughout the country. Not to mention Roquois co-runs Plus Value Entertainment which puts on so many nerd events in the DMV.
Corey: My favorite part of HBCU Con is honestly seeing everyone enjoying themselves. From the different informational panels and discussions to seeing everyone dressed up as their favorite characters from different movies, comics, TV shows, etc., HBCU Con shows the creativity and passion from everyone involved, and I think that is such a cool thing to see.
What makes HBCU Con special?
Corey: I think what makes HBCU Con special is the camaraderie and unity amongst the fans of a community coming together and enjoying themselves in possibly the most pivotal time of their young adulthood. Making this event available at a time where someone could be looking for some common ground in their life with peers that they may not even have known existed in their same class or dormitory, especially with being away from home, for some, could be just the kind of positive balance they need in their life at this time.
What HBCU did you attend?
Corey: I attended 2 HBCUs for my educational career. I received my Bachelor’s Degree from University of Maryland Eastern Shore and I received my Master’s Degree from Bowie State University.
I HAVE LEARNED THAT…
Turning down your dream job.
I have always been obsessed with my career and what I wanted that to look like. My career ambitions always topped things like wanting to be a mother or be married.
So at various points in my life, there was a “dream job” I was pursuing. And I was so rigid about it and really put myself through the ringer when I felt like the course does not match that.
And then I realized in the past year that maybe your idea of a dream job, is something totally different. You think you want a specific thing, but when you get there it looks nothing like you imagined. Now it is time for something different, because you know what, this ain’t it.
Over the past year I have been presented — no, actually blessed — with a couple of opportunities that I thought was my “big break.” On paper, these roles were perfect for me. I don’t want to mention the roles or companies, but there were jobs that mixed wrestling, media, and more. But it was not aligned with my mission, etc.
SOCIAL MEDIA/MARKETING TIPS
That time I got cancelled.
Haha yes, I got cancelled. Well, this was the first time where I ever thought, oh shit, did I get my podcast cancelled over a misread tweet?
So y’all know how much I love Twitter. I have been on the platform, I am kind of ashamed to say, since 2009. It is a space where I express myself, and I never want to be in a position where I need to defend anything I tweet. Although I have nearly 3,000 Twitter followers, I still use it for me. So I don’t ever feel the need to stop myself from tweeting whatever the fuck I want or feeling the need to explain myself.
However, when you have a brand that you represent on social media, you kind of have to be mindful of what you say. Anything you post, like, and share on whatever app you are on is a reflection of the brand. This is a lot of pressure especially when it comes to wrestling which is already known to have a passionate fan base.
While watching a wrestling documentary, I tweeted something in my sarcastic tone from our brand page and it got misconstrued. When the documentary aired, I live-tweeted it as I always do and commented on a person’s reaction to Twitter cancelling him for some really fucked up shit he said about woke culture. People took it as me supporting him, when it was me noting that he actually didn’t care about wrestling Twitter “cancelling” him because he is a shitty human being.
When I tweeted it the night of, I muted it because I knew it would get a lot of traction because it was a polarizing topic. However, I did not think that it would get the hate that it got. I only found out when I was on my personal page and came across tweets questioning us and shaming us. We lost followers, people were throwing hate at us from all directions. I tried to explain what I meant in a thread, but most people didn’t give a fuck or chose to hate us even more.
Now, we have had major disagreements with other fans about various things. Especially during the Black Lives Matter times, and just having to defend female athletes’ honour on a daily basis. And Krista B. and I really don’t care if people don’t agree with us because it is fucking wrestling. It is all scripted and really, to each its own. Who cares if you think Becky Lynch is better than Charlotte Flair? Like in the bigger picture, is it really that deep?
However, this particular tweet has a lot to do with the Me Too movement so it was a little deeper than that. And it hurt that people would think that our brand would be anything but being an ally for women. So I had to get off Twitter for a couple of days, which was a first for me, and really detach myself from everything so that I did not take things personally. And that is when I was like, oh shit, is that what it feels like to be cancelled?
For 4 years, TWG has been a beloved brand. In wrestling terms, you would call us “baby faces.” So this was the very first time that I even belied or cared that we might actually get shunned and have to go into obscurity over one fucking tweet.
But I reached out to some of my friends and family in the wrestling media community, and they assured me that everything was going to be fine and to just keep doing my thing. It was such a blessing in disguise to almost get cancelled because it actually showed me who were my real friends and who had my back.